Trust in U.S. Institutions at All-Time Lows

[Webster]

(The Guardian) Americans don’t have much faith in America right now. Or at least not in its institutions.

In 2022, a Gallup poll found that Americans had experienced “significant declines” in trust in 11 of 16 major US institutions. The supreme court and the presidency saw the largest drops in public confidence – by 11% and 15%, respectively. Trust also fell in the medical system, banks, police, public schools and newspapers.

Things didn’t improve in 2023: a follow-up poll found that levels of trust remained low, with none of the scores “worsening or improving meaningfully”.

Public confidence waxes and wanes, but these numbers are notably bleak. Trust in institutions has “never been lower”, confirms Jeffrey Jones, a senior editor of the Gallup poll and the author of the 2022 report.

This mistrust is not a one-time blip, a rough patch in an otherwise happy relationship between a country and its people. According to polling experts, it is partly the result of a decades-long effort by political leaders to erode public confidence in institutions such as science, media and government. And the consequences are serious. Not trusting the forces that govern their lives is detrimental to the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities, and makes the country less prepared to face a major crisis. “Trust is the grease that oils the gears and makes things work,” says Dr Marc Hetherington, professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Without it, everything is more difficult.”

But how did we lose this trust in the first place? And is there a way to get it back?

Trust in US institutions has ‘never been lower’ – here’s why that matters

Trust is essential for a healthy, functional society. What happens when it’s lost?

www.theguardian.com

 

[Bluezone777]

It's really quite simple. Whenever you are lied to, you trust that person less. If you get lied to often enough then you stop trusting them completely. If a person is part of an institution and lies to you and are not held to account for it when discovered then you stop trusting that institution as a whole completely.

How to get trust back? That is also rather simple as it starts by keeping your word and holding the liars to account for their deceit and start evicting them from the intuition then you wait for people to chose whether to trust you again. The thing is they have no obligation to ever trust you again as it is on them to decide when and if they start trusting you again as you are owed no trust whatsoever once you lost it.

 

[passenger]

In my case, I have just one exception re. the mistrust. IMO, the medical system here has actually turned around & is making a visible effort to improve. In the last five years or so their services, attitudes have greatly improved.
There's a major Staff shortage........but the nurses & technicians that I've visited lately have been so excellent....way more friendly & helpful than they were as a group 10 years ago.
I do get the impression that the system is working on keeping the excellent ones that they have and making an effort to try to recruit more.

So I'd say that the medical situation here is looking up at the moment.